Newbie Question #2: Goals for REI

[Elisha Keller]

As I've been listening to the podcast it seems that in at least 3-4 they talk about "setting goals". I've always liked that idea; however, it seems even more important with real estate. So my newbie question of the day:

What are your goals with real estate investing? Why was real estate the way you choose to go about achieving that (those) goal(s)?

[Mark Ferguson]

I have been a Realtor since 02 so it was natural for me to start buying long-term rentals, although I didn't start until Dec of 10'. My original goal was to buy 30 single family rentals in ten years. Then I decided that was not challenging enough so I upped it to 100 single family rentals in ten years. I have 7 now with the 8th under contract.

I believe we need to have goals that really challenge us. Even goals that seem crazy. I had a crazy income goal for 2013 and I will pass that up thanks to many unknown opportunities That came up. If we don't have challenging enough goals it is easy to let up and coast once we reach those goals. If you have really challenging goals, then you work like hell or get creative to reach them. Even if you don't reach those challenging goals, it almost certain you will accomplish more than if you had easy goals.